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Good Omens

The world will end on Saturday. Next Saturday. Just before dinner, according to The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, the world's only completely accurate book of prophecies, written in 1655. The armies of Good and Evil are amassing and everything appears to be going according to Divine Plan. Except that a somewhat fussy angel and a fast-living demon are not actually looking forward to the coming Rapture. And someone seems to have misplaced the Antichrist.

Not just another science audiobook and not just another Discworld novella, The Science of Discworld is a creative, mind-bending mash-up of fiction and fact, that offers a wizard’s-eye view of our world that will forever change how you look at the universe.

The Folklore of Discworld: Legends, Myths, and Customs from the Discworld with Helpful Hints from Planet Earth

Most of us grew up having always known when to touch wood or cross our fingers, and what happens when a princess kisses a frog or a boy pulls a sword from a stone, yet sadly some of these things are beginning to be forgotten. Legends, myths, and fairy tales: Our world is made up of the stories we told ourselves about where we came from and how we got here. It is the same on Discworld, except that beings, which on Earth are creatures of the imagination - like vampires, trolls, witches and, possibly, gods - are real, alive and, in some cases kicking, on the Disc.

Jon says:"The illusionist entertains you twice..."

Publisher's Summary

The Great A'Tuin, the heroic turtle who supports the weight of the entire Discworld, not to mention four giant elephants, swims through the galaxy day and night with the burden of being the only creature who knows exactly where the universe is going. Philosophers have long debated where this is, and are due to find out in about 2 months. Shall they worry? Well, they are on a collision course with a malevolent red star and only one person can save Discworld. Unfortunately, it's the cowardly wizard, Rincewind, who was last seen falling off the edge of the planet. This is the second book in the Discworld series.

This book continues the adventures of Rincewind, Twoflower and his luggage. I enjoyed it a lot and it had me laughing out loud at many points. As usual, it never takes itself seriously and pokes a lot of fun at the fantasy genre.

As usual, Nigel Planer's reading is excellent. The audio quality, on the other hand, suffers from "changing tape syndrome," where the pitch of the narrator's voice changes from time to time because the speed of the tape playback wasn't consistent. It's a minor nit, though... it happens infrequently enough that it doesn't annoy for long.

Basically this breaks down to the difference between the story and narration, which are great, and the sound quality and intro, which are bad.

Good: Terry Pratchett is dead funny, and the narrator does a great job.

Bad: I suspect this is a digitization of an older audiobook format. Volumes go up and down from section to section, and they've used a chime noise to designate a change of scene/chapter that's a bit annoying. Listening to the whole book means adjusting your iPod volume up and down every 10 to 20 minutes as the next sections volume will likely be different from the last.

Worst: Just skip the first minute. Terry Pratchett apparently thinks we're all stupid or criminal and feels the need to have someone nag us for the first minute about not sharing/reselling his work by reading us portions of the Audible liscence we obviously already agreed to.

Overall: Good book, worth the audible credit and fun enough you can listen to it more than once :)

Is it possible to be too clever? Probably not. Unless cleverness becomes your only pitch. I have read a number of Pratchett's later books and enjoyed them thoroughly. His characters are endlessly amusing but they are also deeply human, and his plots are composed of whimsy steeped in wisdom. This book, on the other hand, seemed to be working on only one level with the characters existing primarily as mannequins upon which the author could display his sparkling wit and bantering wordplay. He just seemed to be trying too hard, and in the end it all came off as "cute." That is not Pratchett at his best. Still, even second rate Pratchett is entertaining, and his creation of a superannuated "Cohen the Barbarian" is probably worth the credit all by itself.

This file has various volume changes and some sections sound hollow and echo. I love this series, but I'm disappointed in the quality. There's also an anoying little bell-ring when the scene changes but that's a production paux.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. If you haven't read it, shame on you. If you have and liked it, you'll love this book.

Which character ??? as performed by Nigel Planer ??? was your favorite?

I'm still entranced by the luggage. It follows its owner everywhere, and eats anyone who tries an unauthorized search. We could balance the nation budget with that feature alone; it would eliminate an entire useless goverment agency.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I would be worried I would miss something if I weren't concentrating enough.

I just finished listening to "The Light Fantastic" for the second time, and I enjoyed it even more than I did the first time. It has convinced me to start listening to all Pratchett's Discworld novels in sequence. I can't heap enough praise on Nigel Planer's narration. Mr. Planer has consummate acting skills, with a plethora of voices and accents, which he uses masterfully. Normally, I would dock a star for the bad sound quality on this recording; but I enjoyed this audiobook so much -- despite the tinny sound -- that I overlooked that drawback. Considering the print publication date of this novel -- 1986 -- and the fact that the audio version was probably recorded shortly thereafter -- on tape -- one can forgive the sound quality. I can't imagine why anybody would not like this audiobook. Certainly, anyone who likes Douglas Adams' books will certainly like Terry Pratchett's books. The two authors have the same kind of brilliant, off-beat imagination and sense of humor. I suppose if one prefers non-fiction or romance, one might not appreciate Terry Pratchett's offerings; but, otherwise, one can hardly go wrong with Terry Pratchett. Just prepare yourself for an alternate reality.

This is a good book that continues the series but I have found that listening to what I call page chimes (the tone in children's books that let them know to turn the page) every few "pages" annoying. I can only hope that this is exclusive to this book since it wasn't present in the first book. The Narrator does a very good job reading and gives you the feeling of multiple actors playing the different roles of a play.

Terry Prachett is one crazy writter. I can't tell you how many times people stopped and stared at me while I was listening to this book. (Due to uncontrollable laughter at the characters lines.)I view this as my all time favorite type and style of writing. Comedy and Sci-Fi. I can say I got so many laughs from this book that I will continue with the rest of his series. I'm hoping that he continues with the hillarity in the rest of the stories.